Reasons to be Creative organiser reflects on why the best talks are about passion

We chat to John Davey (above), organiser and owner of the successful Brighton-held conference, Reasons to be Creative (part of Brighton Digital Festival).

The conference is religiously held on the first Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of September each year and this year hosted more than 30 speakers and an impressive 900 attendees over three days. It was previously known as Flash on the Beach.

I caught up with John at the end of the second day to ask him a few questions.

AE: So, John, how would you describe the conference?

JD: "Well, that's a difficult one! [laughs]. I'd say it's a smorgasbord of talent: because I don't fit into the HTML5/CSS3 crowd, I don't fit into the designer-only crowd; because we do have tech and we do have creative, so it's a difficult one to pigeonhole. I'd say it's an inspirational event."

AE: What prompted you to start Flash on the Beach?

JD: "I was on the speaking circuit myself, and then my daughter was born and I took my eye off the ball with work, the speaking opportunities dried up, and I thought, 'I really miss that, maybe I should try to do my own'.

I had no idea, really, how to try and do something like that — so I started planning it, and I invited a load of friends, who all said 'yes, we'll do it'.

About a month or two into planning and selling tickets, I thought, 'Oh my God, if this thing goes wrong, I'll have to sell my house!'. Luckily, it didn't, it all went right, and Flash on the Beach grew to be one of the biggest Flash conferences in the world."

AE: Impressive achievement! What prompted the change to Reasons to be Creative?

JD: "Because Flash on the Beach is exactly the same conference that you've attended here, but [people] wouldn't come to it because it had 'Flash' in the title.

I was fed up of going to events and saying to people 'What do you do?' and they'd say 'Oh, I'm a designer' and I'd say 'I do Flash on the Beach' and they'd say 'Yeah, I've heard of that, but I've never attended'. I'd say 'Why?' and they'd say 'Because it's a Flash event.'

I'd say, 'But we have Erik Spiekermann talking, Stefan Sagmeister talking or James Vittori — they're artists and designers' and they'd always say "Oh my God, I didn't know that they'd come, if I'd known that, I'd have attended, but I didn't look past the title". That's why I changed it."

AE: There are a lot of big conferences going on this week — dConstruct, Big Connected TV – what make Reasons to be Creative different from all those others?

JD: "Well, it's a three-day, three-theatre event, for a start — many of those are single-day, single-track events. We have artists, animators, illustrators, filmmakers, coders, designers – it's much broader. A lot of events tend to be quite focused, my aim is to bring content that a) educates, b) inspires and c) motivates, so when people leave, they really want to do great work again."

AE: I've noticed that a few of the talks have been about artists' or creators consideration for the end user/consumer — was this a decision on your part, or just something that emerged naturally?

JD: "I have never, ever said 'I want you to talk about 'x'', and the reason for that is I believe if you force people to talk about something that you want, they're not necessarily talking about their passion – and if they're talking about something they're passionate about, the talk is always going to be better.

"We don't ever have a theme: you know – this year we're talking about 'computers', next year we're talking about 'analog' – or something like that. I tend to see pretty much every speaker I invite, so I know that they're good on stage, and generally I figure that if I find them engaging and interesting. then the audience will probably agree with me."

AE: What do you hope people go away from this conference with?

JD: "I guess there are two answers there. The first one is, I hope that they get totally motivated and inspired. Selfishly, my second thing is I hope that they write down the conference name as the number one on their list when they decide which conferences to go to in the future."

AE: Is there any advice that you'd give to people looking to run conference like this one?

JD: "Don't."

AE: [laughs]

JD: "If people want to get into event organisation, I'd say it's a lot tougher than people think. If they see someone like me on stage and go 'It looks so easy!' then [it's because] I'm making it look easy. That's a big compliment, but there's months and months of planning [behind that].

"I have to think about flights and accommodation and speakers and logistics with the venue, and the A/V, and 'do I get gifts?, don't I get gifts?', the booking system, name changes. There are so many things – ingredients that people don't think of when it comes to organising an event like this – so I would encourage anyone to do that if that's what you want to do, but go in with your eyes open, because it's not as easy as you think."

AE: What do you think about the Brighton Digital Festival?

JD: "Brighton Digital Festival, I guess, is trying to be a bit like South by South-West, which takes over an entire town. That is a hard act to follow — but, you know, what's great is that Brighton is that kind of environment and has that kind of vibe.

"There's a massive amount of design, web design and code companies down here, so it's the perfect setting for a digital festival, and there's a whole month of content that the Brighton Digital Festival can umbrella. I think it's a great thing."

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Prince William Talks Wanting to "Safeguard" the Future for Prince George, Passing on His Philanthropic Passion

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Becoming a first-time parent can offer a new perspective on things—just ask Prince William.

After his wife Kate Middleton gave birth to their first child Prince George in mid-July, the royal has admitted that his conservation work in Africa has been kicked into overdrive since he now has a little one to think about.

"Suddenly you start thinking of like, wow, there is stuff you want to safeguard for the future," the 31-year-old told Max Foster in a new excerpt from the upcoming CNN special, Prince William's Passion: New Hope, New Father. "I've always believed it, but to actually really feel it as well, it's coming through powerfully now."

LOOK: Even Kate Middleton loves McDonald's!

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In fact, Wills hopes to take the future king to Africa someday so he can experience the continent his father loves so much...but once he's a little older.

"I think as soon as George grows up a little bit more. I will be hung if I go now," William quipped. "It's definitely a plan of mine to go back to Africa. I will always have Africa as a special place that I love to go back to."

Especially since that's where he popped the question to his ladylove Kate Middleton in 2010. "I didn't really plan it that far in advance, like I just knew I wanted it to feel comfortable where I did it, and I wanted it to mean something, other than just the act of getting engaged...She understands what it means to me being in Africa, and my love of conservation."

PHOTOS: Take a look back at Will and Kate's childhood pics!

Prince William also mentions that his philanthropic spirit came from his late mother Princess Diana, and that he hopes he passes that passion onto his son.

"She would come back with all these stories and full of excitement and just passion for what she had been doing," he recalls of her trips to Africa in the 1990s. "And I sort of used to sit there, quite a sort of surprised little boy at the time, taking it all in...What I am doing in Africa is probably not as obviously, visually if you like, related to what she did. But helping communities over in the U.K., and around the world...it's about helping the needy and the vulnerable."

He even admits that "I regularly daydream. Africa is definitely one of the places I go to...I have hundreds of animals on my iPhone. So if I am ever having quite a stressful day...you can put a buffalo on in the background or a cricket."

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Until Prince George gets older, Prince William explains that his son will just get a feel of the African landscape through nursery decorations.

"I'll have toy elephants and rhinos around the room," he said referring to his plans for an African-themed nursery. "We'll cover it in, you know, lots of bushes and things like that. [We'll] make him grow up as if he's in the bush."

PHOTOS: Hopefully these potential playmates for Prince George don't mind playing in the bushes

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt Says "Porn's Fine," Talks What Makes Women Sexy in Men's Health

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Already swooning over Joseph Gordon-Levitt? Then brace yourself for the 32-year-old hottie's upcoming flick Don Jon.

The actor stars in his forthcoming self-directed and self-written film, which centers on a New Jersey stud whose addition to pornography inhibits his ability to find happiness with his potential true love (played by Scarlett Johansson).

"Porn's fine," the Men's Health October cover star tells the mag. "I'm aware that it can be hateful toward women. It can be addictive. It can get ugly. But it's only damaging if you allow it to be."

While JGL's personal opinion regarding porn may be a bit polarizing, his perception of costar ScarJo is seemingly something on which we can all agree.

VIDEO: Check out the Don Jon trailer

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"Look, Scarlett is a gorgeous, gorgeous woman, but if you just compare purely physical features, plenty of girls are just as gorgeous," he explains. "But she creates this extra something. It's in her walk, her eye contact. The total package is just off the charts."

The actor also tells Men's Health he envisioned the newly engaged starlet in the role since day one.

"I didn't know Scarlett, but I spent more than a year with the image of her in my head playing this character," he admits to the mag (per People). "She couldn't not do this."

And since the actor landed his perfect leading lady, he was forced to step up his game when it came to getting in shape for the role.

VIDEO: JGL talks Ben Affleck's Batman backlash

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"I was big, but I wasn't healthy," he says of his Don Jon body transformation. "The feeling I'll have after playing basketball with friends for a few hours versus going to the gym and staring at myself for a few hours is the difference between exhilaration and hell. One's blissful, the other is sore, self-doubting, and lonely."

Still, there's no doubt dude looks good.

"I put on about 12 pounds," the actor reveals in the behind-the-scenes video from the cover shoot. "You know I went to the gym every day for a couple hours for six months and I ate and ate and ate, I ate so much food. No fat, no sugar, no dairy, no bread."

Hard work pays off! Don Jon hits theaters Sept. 27.

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